{"id":1923,"date":"2018-11-12T19:36:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T19:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2018-11-12T19:36:40","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T19:36:40","slug":"axeman-lauds-boxing-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=1923","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Axeman&#8217; lauds boxing gym"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>From the streets of Anchovy to the world stage, former Jamaican super featherweight champion, Nicholas the \u2018Axeman\u2019 Walters, is back home and is imploring troubled youths to use boxing as a way out of poverty and trouble, as well as a way from guns.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Walters, who is in the island for a short visit, made the declaration on Thursday morning, November 8, while speaking at the Montego Bay Cricket Club during his support of the \u2018Gloves for Guns\u2019 campaign launched in Montego Bay, and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the local boxing board and the Cricket Club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can make a career out of boxing,\u201d Walters declared. \u201cYou can use the sport of boxing to get out of trouble, off the streets and make life and living much better,\u201d Walters noted. \u201cBoxing is big business and many can make a career out of it, they just need the right things in place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walters, who was named Sportsman of the Year back in 2014 following his exceptional showing on the world stage that year, revealed \u201cgreat opportunities can be had by youths who choose to turn to the sport\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also lamented on the lack of support from corporate Jamaica and called on business owners and those with the capabilities to come on board and assist in whatever way they can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the business people here in Montego Bay, we need some support from them, coming on board and making dreams a reality,\u201d Walters declared, \u201cit can be realized it\u2019s just a matter of coming together and making it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now a resident of Panama, Walters also highlighted the need for a fully functional gym in Montego Bay and his delight of the new direction being taken by the Jamaica Boxing Board in preparing to join forces with the Montego Bay Cricket Club in getting a gym up and running in MoBay.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1924\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1924\" src=\"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing-95x64.jpg 95w, https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ready-for-boxing.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">READY FOR BOXING: Nicholas \u2018Axeman\u2019 Walters (2nd right) and father Job look on as Clive Waldron, president of the Montego Bay Cricket Club, puts pen to paper on a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jamaica Boxing Board. Also sharing in the moment are President of the local boxing Board, Stephen Jones (2nd left), Secretary Leroy Brown and trustee at the Club, Cecil Fletcher. Noelita Lawrence photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis has been talked about for many years now and finally, it is about to come on board and I am totally giving it my support,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of thing should have been here a longtime, the West. Montego Bay, St. James, is known for sports, all kinds and with so many youths losing their way in recent times, a gym where they can go to punch, get advice and guidance, can be the way out of trouble,\u201d he remarked to the Western Mirror.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018What is happening now, a place like this should (the gym) be located at the Montego Bay Cricket Club\u2019s third floor. It is long overdue, but it\u2019s coming now and I\u2019m in support of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be good for the city,\u201d he added, smiling.<\/p>\n<p>He declared that the boxing gym, which will see the users being under the guidance and supervision of his father Job, should be used as a tool towards getting youths totally involved and on a journey towards professional boxing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BACK IN THE RING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thirty-two (32) year-old Walters who hails from the hills of Anchovy and who shot to stardom from nothing under the guidance of his father Job, says he has still been training despite taking a slight break from the ring.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed to the Western Mirror that he is preparing to get back into the ring as soon as possible by the end of this year or early next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m working on a few things and a fight will definitely take place by the end of the year or early next year,\u201d he noted. \u201cI and my camp are working on getting back in the ring. I\u2019ve been out of the ring for a while, but still maintained a training method.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, I\u2019m trying get back down to 130 pounds,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve been training lately, and now that I\u2019m here, I will be using the hills to good effect, getting some strength work\u00a0 in, because I\u2019ve not been competitive in recent times and as you can see I\u2019ve packed on some pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walters, whose last bout was a sensational defeat to Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine, back in November 2016, has a ring record of 26 wins from 28 bouts, with one defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Walters, who attended the Roehampton Primary and Anchovy High School, debuted as a professional back in 2008, and has 21 of his wins by way of knockouts.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Noelita Lawrence<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the streets of Anchovy to the world stage, former Jamaican super featherweight champion, Nicholas the \u2018Axeman\u2019 Walters, is back home and is imploring troubled youths to use boxing as a way out of poverty and trouble, as well as a way from guns. Walters, who is in the island for a short visit, made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[958,959,960,957,30,956],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-axeman","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-gym","tag-nicholas-walters","tag-western-jamaica","tag-western-mirror-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1926,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions\/1926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}